By: Tarryn Knight - head of marketing at Ford South Africa

In times of inordinate flux, empowering teams to be honest about what they don't know, and giving them the support to explore, can lead to unexpected breakthroughs, writes Tarryn Knight

The world is in flux, with unprecedented geopolitical upheaval and longstanding alliances in tatters. For many professionals in what used to be considered the “flow phase” of their careers in decades past, the last five years have increasingly shattered guardrails and baselines that we’d come to reference in our work.

What’s more for the industry in which I operate, everything is in flux too. Globally, the automotive sector is undergoing its biggest revolution in more than a century, with ICE being challenged by hybrid and EV technology. Locally, the surge in Chinese imports is disrupting established OEMs that have invested in our country as never before.

The South African automotive marketing landscape is no longer simply about adapting to digital engagement. It's about navigating a volatile mix of economic pressures, technological disruptions, and shifting consumer expectations.

Multi-channel advertising strategies remain essential for effective prospect management, and consumer research online before purchase is still the crucial journey for advertisers to navigate. However, the rising cost of living in South Africa is forcing consumers to delay purchases or opt for more affordable alternatives, impacting marketing ROI for the valued, established brands. This, in turn, puts pressure on securing marketing budget year to year.

Data analytics is the lifeline of ROI but even with sophisticated data, predicting consumer behaviour in this environment is becoming increasingly difficult. The R593m spent on automotive marketing between July and December 2024 (according to Ornico’s latest Automotive Sector Media Overview Report referenced by Lynette Dicey in a recent article) represents a significant investment, and the pressure is on to demonstrate tangible results in the face of economic headwinds.

Then there's the not-so-silent elephant in the room: generative AI and large language models. Everyone's talking about them, but beneath the hype lies a genuine sense of uncertainty. It’s no longer about programmatic ad-serving and such predicable applications. The real challenge is understanding how AI will fundamentally reshape content creation, customer engagement, and even the very definition of marketing creativity.

Marketers can't afford to be complacent, but they also can’t afford to assume the ground is stable in the direction they choose to charge ahead with. The current state of constant flux in all areas should fuel a sense of urgency and a willingness to experiment, adapt, and embrace the unknown. The future of automotive marketing in South Africa depends on it.

Given that I find myself in spaces that are unfamiliar in every way this year, I’ve explored four checkpoints to help steer through the new reality.

The first is that when our reality is disrupted, there’s a risk that we jump to conclusions in order to feel secure. In doing so we cut short the time we should allow for being open to all the choices and resources that might become apparent if we keep an open mind and ask ourselves and others the hard questions. My suggestion: Surround yourself with experts in their respective fields and build relationships and partnerships that help you embrace the chaos. Challenge assumptions together in a spirit of mutual trust and respect with genuine curiosity to uncover uncharted ground and new approaches. Seek the friction that sparks true innovation.

Second, learn to be comfortable with discomfort. Find the edge of your comfort zone and live there. Be your own disruptor. Embrace the reality that there is never going to be a “new normal”. I find I can summon the energy and insights to do so in my professional life from what I do outside work. Having spent all my formative years as a dancer and having never played a ball-sport, I recently took up golf. It’s an entirely new discipline to me that demands and rewards patience, focus and resilience. Challenging oneself to unfamiliar experiences and skills outside work can bring tremendous confidence to embracing the uncertainties in your professional world. One aspect of that is acknowledging that building new neural pathways and muscle memory takes time. You just need to keep taking that next best step.

Third, you need to lean completely into the role of you and your team in the evolving business ecosystem. For example, as a marketing professional you’ve really got to embrace the financial performance of your brand. You have to find how to both protect your department’s budget and be a proverbial ‘good soldier’ in the larger business success at the same time. It’s about understanding how you and your team dovetail effectively with internal stakeholders to drive the performance and health of the business. We must clinically measure results and our role in delivering them, embracing the reality that marketing experts contribute to financial outcomes. It's no longer about being a cost centre; it's about being a contributor in tangible terms of return on investment and being able to measure that.

And I’ve saved my favourite checkpoint for last: The key indicator of your effectiveness as a leader is in how your team members flourish. "It's amazing what you can achieve if you don't mind who gets the credit" is a quote I live by. Focusing on the achievements, growth and exposure of your team members increases their collective successes, and being the support that your peers and superiors need enhances your capacity to navigate the challenges facing the business as a cohesive unit. As a leader, the only person you should compete with is yourself. Embrace your mistakes as a catalyst for making you a better, more empathetic leader. This gives your team ‘permission’ to be brave and try new things themselves, knowing you’ll take the same stance with their mistakes.

In automotive marketing, as in global geopolitics, we must accept – and as leaders, empower our teams to accept – that we’re operating on fluid ground and in short sprints of ‘the next best decision’. Where we’ll end up may become clear in time, but living fluid is the new normal.